Duct Tape Banished Big Wart

Q. I had an enormous plantar wart on the heel of my foot. I let it go for a long time because I read they can go away on their own, but it got to be about 2 inches across.

I tried salicylic acid patches from the pharmacy but it took nearly a whole box of them to cover it. A dermatologist froze it, which hurt like crazy, but didn’t kill the wart. I finally tried duct tape.

I wore duct tape on it for about two months. My heel looked like Swiss cheese because the calloused skin swells and turns white from the duct tape and the black spots of the wart looked like craters in my foot. Then it was summertime and I wanted to wear sandals. I gave up treating the wart for a while.

Much to my surprise once the “Swiss cheese” callus wore away, clear pink healthy skin grew back in its place. The duct tape had worked. It just took a long time to see the results.

A. A few studies have examined duct tape for warts, but the results have been conflicting. Nonetheless, this approach is inexpensive and doesn’t hurt.

Others who would like to try this should cut a piece of duct tape the same size as the wart. Place the duct tape on the wart and leave it in place for a week. Then remove the tape, soak the wart in warm water and file it down with an emery board. The next day, put a fresh piece of duct tape on the wart. Repeat the procedure for up to two months.

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14 Thoughts Shared

Roxanne

July 18, 2014 at 5:20 pm

I’ve struggled for over a year with a plantars wart on the ball of my left foot. After the first few months of it starting to hurt more and more with each step I took, I went to my doctor who confirmed it was a planters wart and suggested I look up the duct tape method on the internet. For my first attempt I tried it with the salicylic acid disks that come in the ‘wart’ treatment products and covered with a piece of duct tape.
First, the discs were too big and painfully burned off healthy skin surrounding the wart, but biggest problem was that the adhesive from the duct tape would get all over my shoes and socks! For a condition that was already painful to walk on, having your foot stick to your shoe made it hurt MORE with each step. After a few weeks I gave up and decided to try the home freezing kit method.
Tried this weekly for a few months – total bust. Not only did it not help but it made it spread!
I finally tried a new winning combination: first I use a metal callous scraper to get as much dead skin off as possible. The I use the liquid salicylic acid that you brush on so you can just get coverage on the affected area, I let that dry; next I put a small piece of duct tape over the affected area; and finally I put a bigger piece of ATHLETIC tape over that. The athletic tape has enough stickiness to stay on, but the adhesive doesn’t come off on your shoes or socks.
In the last two months since I’ve been doing this regimen my plantars wart has dramatically improved!! There’s no more pain when I walk which is the best result – even if it’s not quite healed yet. I do have to replace it every 3-4 days when the athletic tape starts peeling off. But then I just repeat the above steps and keep going.
Find the combination of salicylic acid, duct and other tapes that work for you and don’t give up!

Warts and Water

November 18, 2013 at 3:15 pm

Tried to treat warts with tape, but when showering the tape fell off.
Also tried nail polish. It took years and eventually warts are gone. Any way to smother them may work, but it’s hard to keep warts dry and smothered when sweating and showering. Any advice?
My son has a large wart 1/4 inch on his elbow and has trouble keeping any treatment on through workouts and showers. How do you keep them treated for days at a time?

RachelM

March 28, 2013 at 5:58 pm

Hello all.. I have a great way to remove warts. I’m a Mom of 5. My 15 year old daughter had a crazy number of warts on her feet. In total is 38. I researched the web after her doctor confirmed that they were warts. AT first I was skeptical,who knows what works, right? APPLE CIDER VINEGAR.. Who knew something that sits in the kitchen spice cabinet could be so helpful.
Here is what you do. Soak the foot in warm/as hot as you can take it water, get the skin softer. Take new pumice stone and gently go over the infected areas. I did my daughter’s feet in sections since there were so many. Then take the head of a cotton swab off. Dip it in the apple cider vinegar, squeeze so it’s not dripping wet.Then place it on the wart and cover with any kind of bandage that will work. I used duct tape because it was cheaper, and it actually would stay put. The foot sweats so easy that band aides were just falling right off.
We repeated this for 3 nights. The next morning after the third treatment a white ring appeared around the wart, black dots were in the center. My daughter was able to literally peel the the wart off of her foot. A small indent, crater was in her foot.It had new very pink skin was there. We did this repeatedly for all of the warts. Some took only 2 doses, some larger ones took 5 days, but that was the longest. It did not hurt her either. Warning… Apple Cider stinks pretty bad, so do it at night so nobody knows… lol

Stupudwarts

June 29, 2012 at 4:46 pm

I have one big wart on the ball of my foot. I’ve had it for two years, It’s been frozen multiple times. After doing that so many times I couldn’t take it and decided that I would wait for it to go away on it’s own. Two weeks ago I looked at my foot and three more small ones were developing!! So I frantically searched the internet for a home remedy, I found duct tape.
I’ve been using it for a week now, but the duct tape is having a hard time sticking to my foot, I replace it two-three times a day. The skin of the warts have turned white and kind of soft, the large wart I can feel some pain from time to time. I haven’t noticed them getting smaller yet, I’ll update here in another week I’m taking close note to what’s happening since I noticed all the articles are lacking in detail as to what actually happens to the wart week to week.
Also I don’t cut wart shaped pieces of duct tape out I just put a strip over that part of my foot, the skin around the warts for me is not bothered by the tape.

ilococrAZYYgrl

February 23, 2012 at 7:08 pm

I got a weird wart on my thumb and don’t know what kind id is. It has like spikes coming up. It freaks me out. I really want to get rid of it fast. I also have a plantar wart on my foot. I have a blister on my middle finger that is a little bit over my nail. How do I get rid of these? HELP!
PEOPLE’S PHARMACY RESPONSE: Before assuming that thing is a wart, get a doctor to look at it. Once you have a diagnosis, you can proceed with home remedies, or get treatment if it is a more serious issue. Make sure the doc looks at the blister on the nail as well.

JG

July 28, 2011 at 3:39 pm

I have used clear Iodine to get rid of warts even large planter warts. Apply 2 or three times a day until it dries up & falls off.
I have a great use for the old yellow Listerine: Use about a teaspoon in a bucket of water to condition any flower or green stem for flower arranging. May put in vase to, just 1/2teaspoon is enough. Change water every 3-4 days..
Your flowers will last twice as long..

SJ

October 29, 2009 at 12:49 am

I got a wart on my index finger. It was a small plantar wart and I didn’t think it would be a big deal. It hurt like the dickens the first time I froze it with liquid nitrogen, and I was glad it was over… Or so I thought. It turned out I had to freeze it about 16 times before it FINALLY turned into a blister. It was a really gross and I finally picked it off. All the wart juice got on my hands and I washed them quickly. I feel like it’s over, but I can see where the wart used to be is a grouping of white fibers sticking out of my skin that hurts when I touch it. Is it gonna come back and should I use duct tape?
P.S. What are those white fibers?

doc josh

June 10, 2009 at 12:57 am

I got a plantar wart from the gym years ago. I used Medi-plast and it took months to disappear…so I thought. 5 years later, the darn thing shows up again, this time about 3mm by 5 mm. I had a brainstorm. Why not crush up an aspirin (the same ingredient in the Mediplast tape) and make a paste with it then cover with duct tape.
IT WORKED. It took about 4 months and some diligent scraping of dead skin. I couldn’t tell when I had really rid my foot of the wart, so after the four months I just stopped. New pink skin grew in and I knew that the wart was gone because all of the foot print lines had returned to normal.
So for those who need a boost to the duct tape alone, crush up an aspirin, add just a touch of water to make a paste, the put a dab of it onto the wart to cover. If it’s too wet I used a tissue to absorb the water. Then I covered it with a big piece of duct tape and replaced it every few days. The left over crushed aspirin I just rehydrated as needed until I needed more, then I would crush up a new aspirin.
Diligence is required but it worked for me.

June 8, 2009 at 10:26 pm

Courtney

May 5, 2009 at 6:50 pm

Hello there, I found this website during my usual trek through google results for removing warts. I’ve four pretty tiny warts that I first noticed in 2004. I let them go for a few years, thinking they would leave on their own … they didn’t. So I tried the acid treatment that killed skin around them and then cut them with razor blades. But the pain was so bad and it bled so often, I was never able to cross the threshold and just rip the darn thing off.
I read about duct tape for the longest time and it seemed so simple there’s no way it could actually work. Well, I broke down and tried it and have been wearing tape fairly regularly for weeks now. One day two of the warts turned really white and I was actually able to scrape lots of it out … and now they aren’t white anymore, but a lot of new, pink skin is starting to replace the rough wart skin. So I’m hopeful that this is going to work. I take vitamins regularly as well to keep my immune system boosted to kill the virus. If this works, I’m telling everybody! I am praying for the day I can go barefoot at the pool and not hide my feet!

Murray

April 4, 2009 at 11:11 am

LW

March 27, 2009 at 11:21 am

I also had a plantar wart in between two of my toes. I first had an ant bite there and I noticed that it would not go away. My husband told me he thought the bite had turned into a callus. 4 months later, I was in the dentist office and seen an article on plantar wart that fit the description of my toe exactly. So when I got home I researched and found a website saying duct tape would make warts/plantars warts go away. So I tried it. a month and half later it is almost completely gone. There is a little scab the size of a pencil point. I have had this thing since Labor Day weekend 08. Wished I would have known about Duct Tape sooner would have saved me from all the pain I suffered when someone stepped/or touched my toe.

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